[These
are my views as a woman living in England, on how the culture and
spirit of my country has changed over 50 years. Why the country does
not feel protected or strong any more, how it has lost, and is losing
it values and decency, and how we are daily losing our free speech.]

I
can still recall the day I collected his belongings from the hospital.
A small old case with his pyjamas and dressing gown. A toothbrush
and comb, personal belongings, never to be used again. These were
my father’s effects.

They
were nothing really, but just for this short moment in time, they
meant something. There was an essence of respect and gratitude attached
to them, and to him.

A
post-mortem was to be carried out. There was a tinge of abuse knowing
that someone was cutting him open. I tried to put it out of my mind;
he was dead but needed to rest in peace. He deserved that now. A hard
working man with the history and hell of the Second World War etched
in his memory, he was a stranger to them; an unknown father, husband
and son, known only to God. They shouldn’t be touching him.
He had already given so much.

Driving
home that day, I also had no idea of an unseen miracle about to take
place. The tissue, veins and organs of a new life were being created.
How strange life and death are. But how strange we have also lost
our sense of ‘wonderment’ and ‘respect’ for
it. What has happened to mankind to change its opinions?

People
talk so often of the mind, body and spirit. We are apparently all
spiritual beings having a bodily experience. Why does anyone care
how dead bodies are treated?

Wales,
a country which lies on the west coast of Great Britain, and which
forms part of the United Kingdom made a media appearance last month
in relation to the ethics surrounding this. The Welsh Assembly has
now passed a law which states that unless people opt-out of being
organ donors, the medical profession can now take what it wants without
seeking consent when someone dies. They aim for this law to be in
place by 2015 They join such countries as Belgium Spain and Austria
in their decision. The Welsh Secretary of the British Medical Association
made the following statement:

“I
believe that this is the most important piece of legislation created
in Wales since the laws of Hywel Dda.
“A few years ago, Wales was ready to lead the UK on banning
smoking in public places, but we didn't have the necessary legal powers.
“This time we are delighted that our National Assembly has shown
the rest of the UK the way forward and fully support its implementation.
We congratulate AMs for their enlightenment. Patients across the country
will now benefit directly or indirectly benefit from this Bill.

Wales,
known for its Celtic history and language, and its fight for independence,
will also now become known for what is called ‘Presumed Consent’.
This could affect all British people in the United Kingdom once it
crosses over the invisible border between us. And it may. Although
the presumed consent was rejected almost five years ago in England,
Wales could be the prototype for reducing the waiting list of patients
who are waiting for organ transplants in the whole of the United Kingdom.
By
2015, anyone over the age of 18 who dies in Wales can have their organs
removed.

“Why
not give the gift of life to someone who can be saved?” has
been the reasoning used by many in the medical profession and also
the lobby groups who are concerned about the lack of donor matches.

Is
Wales, whose anthem is ‘the land of our fathers’, now
being ‘used’ as the leading force for us to follow their
way. I think so. The Welsh Secretary also stated it. What would the
generations before us, our fathers, actually think of this? Although
the Welsh Secretary believes Hywel Dda would be proud of Wales, many
Welsh people also voiced their objection to the decision. Who would
Hywel Dda really have represented?

I
know what my father would think.

Organ
donation was unheard of just 45 years ago; it was in 1967 that Christian
Barnard carried out the very first heart transplant. Since then mankind
has come around to the idea of organ transplants, and many people
do carry organ donor cards. Donation has become a new normality in
our way of thinking. Though many may argue this point, the leap from
not carrying out transplants at all to carrying out 4,000 transplants
this year, reaching a record high, states otherwise.

Presently,
there are 10,000 Britons currently on the waiting list for organ donation.
Donation, however, can not only consist of Kidneys, Heart, Liver,
Lung and Pancreas, it also covers the donation of Body Tissues, such
as Heart Valves, Bone Tissues and Skin and Eye Tissue. Many people
are surprised if you tell them that a donor still has to be kept ‘alive’
in order for an organ to be removed. This is something people don’t
often think deeply about.

Once
people would have been very shocked at such a procedure. Removing
a body part to put inside someone else was once a very alien practice.
It is now a very accepted practice. Documentaries illustrating the
life giving skills of transplant operations are now common place on
a weekly basis in all homes, and have been for many years.

People
are no longer shocked or squeamish at the sight of the scalpel. The
intricate and skilful hands of the surgeon are a marvel to the onlooker.

In
stark contrast is the absence of the filming of abortive procedures,
considered much too horrific for the viewer to watch. It seems doctors
not only want to give life, but some also have no problem in taking
it away.

The
Anatomy and Physiology of the human body is the most fascinating example
of creation. How can anyone deny the existence of God? It is strange
however that in our exposure to TV viewing of surgical procedures,
mankind has actually become de-sensitised to the wonderment of human
creation. The surgeon has become the giver of life.

In
1983, Sir Magdi Yacoub was the first doctor in the UK to perform a
double heart and lung transplant. He then went on to pioneer and perform
the UK's first domino heart transplant - where a patient receiving
heart and lungs donates their own heart to someone else. Sir Yacoub
is also credited with performing an operation on the UK's youngest
heart transplant patient at just 10 days old.

Sir
Magdi Yacoub appeared to be a very humble man, with a very genuine
concern for his patients, but I did not hear a recipient of his skill,
on this particular programme, thank God for their gift of extended
life.

With
the passing of the law for ‘presumed’ consent, what will
be the implications and attitude towards people who do opt-out? As
we become more deeply indoctrinated into the belief that our bodies
can be deemed more useful dead than alive, will people who have opt-out
instructions on their records be denied medical treatment because
of a presumed selfishness by others in the future? What happens to
distraught family members who will no longer have any contribution
to the decisions being made about their loved ones bodies? And who
decides when a person is dead?

It
must be remembered and highlighted there have many instances where
people have regained full health when all hope has been lost. In the
enthusiasm to help another will such hope or care be compromised?
And have we learnt the lesson from the mistakes made from the Liverpool
Care Pathways where instructions were placed on patient’s records
without their knowledge.?

We
obviously care about people who need transplants, and want them well;
no-one can deny that. No-one wants another person to suffer when they
can be helped. Not at all. Currently there is a mutual respect for
the bereaved and also for the suffering.

For
some people, donation can be a wonderful gift. However, it can no
longer be called a gift, when your body becomes the property of the
medical profession based on mere presumption.

Dan
Boucher, Wales’s public affairs officer for Christian charity
CARE, said: ‘If the Bill does not respect either the consent
of the deceased or of their family, there is a real risk of this legislation
backfiring as people feel pressurized by the state and withdraw from
donation.

It
is also reported that as an incentive of a reward, in exchange for
a gift, organ donators may also be offered their funeral expenses
to be paid for by the NHS. This is taxpayer’s money. Are you
willing to sell your body for their gold, or would you rather give
a free gift to another?

In
2007, Sir Liam Donaldson, who was then Chief Medical Officer stated
that "We have something of a crisis in this country.” He
went on to say he also wanted a change in the law to make it compulsory
that organs are removed from a dead body under presumed consent unless
they carry a card abstaining from such a procedure. He stated that
people were dying needlessly. It is a scandal. Every day at least
one patient dies while on the transplant waiting list.

The article went on further to say that that most people want to donate
organs; ‘they just never get around to carrying a donor card’.

Therefore,
similarly, I do hope that people who do not wish to participate in
organ donation get around to carrying an opt-out card. As in the words
of Sir Liam Donaldson himself, most people just never get around to
it! Will you?

The
scandal Sir Liam Donaldson referred to in regards to the waiting list
for donors, and the promotion of selling organs by Professor John
Harris, could also be applied to the scandal of un-necessary deaths
and harm created to the poor who sell their organs out of desperation
for money. Does anyone care about them? Organ Trafficking is a huge
money making industry.

Anthropologist
Nancy Scheper-Hughes has spent many years exposing the problems of
human exploitation in regards to selling organs in poor communities

In
2000 she exposed an international ring of organ sellers. Some transplants
of which took place in major New York City Hospitals.

Most
recently in an article from Sept 3, 2013 she wrote,

“Living
kidney sellers suffer from post-operative infections, weakness, depression,
and some die from suicide, wasting, and kidney failure. Organs Watch
documented five deaths among 38 kidney sellers recruited from
small villages in Moldova.”

The
current organ donation card should remain as it is for those people
who wish to be a donor. Those who want to give a gift. More promotion
of being an organ donor would be better, rather than creating potential
problems and distress in the future. The motto on the bottom of the
organ donor card reads ‘I want to help others live after my
death’

I
believe our bodies should not become the ownership of those who did
not create and give life to them in the first place. I am concerned
about the serious implications that will arise from compulsory/presumed
consent organ donation, and the trend that is making people feel morally
obligated and ‘guilty’ in complying with the demands of
medicine.

The
law which has been passed in Wales is another step towards the loss
of freedom. The ‘opt out’ clause a clever intermediary
device, used to soften the outcome. Sadly, it may create much pain
as the urgency required in removing organs overlooks a patients true
wishes.

I
am thankful to surgeons at times, many are very skilled and extremely
dedicated; but my thanks will always go to God, the giver of life,
who sometimes uses surgeons for good. We should never hold them up
as being experts used for making important decisions about laws which
affect our lives.

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How
lovingly would we have cared for the body of Christ, had we been there
when he was taken from the cross? How important were the three days
prior to his resurrection?

His
gift was a selfless act of Love. He came to give and not take.

There
is also a message in his life for the lost, lonely, sick and bereaved.
Do we see and hear it?

Presume:
To take for granted as being true in the absence of proof. To venture
without authority or permission. To act overconfidently, take liberties.
To take unwarranted advantage of something, go beyond the proper limits.

Shirley
Edwards was born and lives in Great Britain. She has always worked
in administration, but have also taught and studied complimentary
health. In administrative roles, she has worked within The Church
of England. She also worked for some years as a volunteer within the
hospice movement.

Shirley
has an interest in all health issues, loves the British countryside,
and enjoys writing. She is thankful for talk radio and loves listening.

Shirley
has always been concerned about the loss of freedoms in her country,
also the demise of America, a country she loves for the original reasons
on which it was founded. She believe in the Pursuit of Genuine Happiness.

I can still recall
the day I collected his belongings from the hospital. A small old case
with his pyjamas and dressing gown. A toothbrush and comb, personal
belongings, never to be used again. These were my father’s effects.